Meanings
plural heritors · alternative heretor · alternative obsolete heritour
- A person who inherits; an heir or heiress.
How comes it then that from such high estate We have thus fallen, save that Luxury With barren merchandise piles up the gate Where nobler thoughts and deeds should enter by: Else might we still be Milton's heritors.
a. 1881, Oscar Wilde, 'Quantum Mutata', in Poems1 more example
Morris, our sweet and simple Chaucer's child, Dear heritor of Spenser's tuneful reed, With soft and sylvan pipe has oft beguiled The weary soul of man in troublous need, And from the far and flowerless fields of ice Has brought fair flowers meet to make an earthly paradise.
a. 1881, Oscar Wilde, 'The Garden of Eros', in Poems - Scots lawA proprietor or landholder in a parish.
The printed statement reads (abridged in parts):— "To the Interested HERITORS in the Counties of Mid-Lothian, Roxburgh, Selkirk, and Berwick. […]
1951 February, Michael Robbins, “Sir Walter Scott and Two Early Railway Schemes”, in Railway Magazine, page 87
Synonyms & antonyms
nouna person who is entitled by law or by the terms of a will to inherit the estate of another
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Late Latinhērēditārium
- Old Frenchheritier
- Anglo-Normanheriter
- Middle Englishheriter
- Englishheritor
From Middle English heriter, from Anglo-Norman heriter, Old French heritier, earlier eretier, eritier, from Late Latin hērēditārium (from the adjective hērēditārius (“hereditary”)), which took the place of hērēs (“heir”). In the 16th century conformed to agent nouns in -our, -or. By surface analysis, herit + -or.
More words from Middle English, Anglo-Norman, Old French
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
heritor. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/heritor
“heritor.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/heritor. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “heritor,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/heritor.
Source: heritor on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.